


The Continuing Search for Hope

by DaLaRi



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 18:04:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1753699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaLaRi/pseuds/DaLaRi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Why do you come here, Charles?"<br/>"Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?"<br/>"Ah, yes. Your continuing search for hope."</p><p>A Missing Scene from Days of Future Past-<br/>Standing vigil over Logan, Erik and Charles share the precious few things they know and the many, many things they regret. Very little is said, but much more is understood.<br/>And, for the first time, Erik finds that even though he hasn't changed sides, he's been given the first move.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Continuing Search for Hope

**Author's Note:**

> This scene was my attempt at a something resembling closure. I aimed to write it so it would not have been out of place in the movie. I loved what was done, but I feel that, in the two to three days Logan was lying motionless with his mind in the past, Charles and Erik would have found the emotional stability to he at least one more conversation than what was shown. And this, I can believe, is what happened, although it took the end of everything to reach it.

With nothing to do but wait, the room is hollow as funeral dust. Logan, who is lying still on the stone table with his head between Kitty’s hands, is, for the first time, as still as a corpse. The room is what is left of a better time, and somehow, the waiting feels like a funeral. In a way, it is. Who they are, all that they accomplished, will cease to exist the second Logan opens his eyes. They will be wiped from history, nothing they are will ever have existed. The concept sits heavy in the shadows of the room, but between the two old men who wait by his side, the grief is tender and raw.

As they sit vigil for Logan, neither of them have to look at each other to feel the regret welling heavily between them. The light in the room is soft, and when he turns to look at the face of his companion, Erik is once again taken aback by how much Charles has aged. He clears his throat softly, testing the silence, and Bobby doesn’t even look up. He’s absorbed in his worry for Kitty, but Erik’s words are soft nonetheless.  Not out of physical necessity, but rather, because he needs them to be. With a wry smile at his own sentimentality, he turns back to Charles.

“We’ve gotten old, old friend.”

In his wheelchair, Charles lets out a harsh sort of chuckle, and looks up from where he is levitating. His own soft brand of cynicism is written across his face.

“It seems we have, Erik. Although I admit,” he says, shifting slightly, “I had had hope that you would have come home to us sooner.”

And somehow that turns his sorrow even more raw, how Charles is still not bitter, after all of this. It’s almost painful, the feeling of regret that threatens to strangle him.

_Oh Charles, all the things I missed._

He looks over, still after all these years, expecting Charles to be standing next to him. And as always, he is unprepared for the sickening wave of guilt that hits him when he sees the metal of the chair he’s confined his dearest friend to. The low pulse of self-loathing still throbs at the sight of it, although it’s subdued now, both by time and greater sins.

He’s spent too many years hurting this man.

He takes a deep breath, looking across the room as if courage is hiding somewhere in the colours of the stained-glass. He needs to say... something. The thing. The thing that will make all these years seem worthwhile, that they've been dancing around their entire lives. And it _has_ been their entire lives, hasn't it? He can feel the words, stifling at the back of his throat. A new game, here and now, just before they reset the board. And for the first time in his life, he has the first move. So he chooses. Pawn to E5. He begins with a name.

“Charles-”

“Oh, there’s never been a need for that, old friend.”

He stops short, looking down at the man he’s come to know so well, to love so dearly.

The other man smiles fondly, raising two fingers to tap at his temple.

“You’ve never had anything to hide from me.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to point out how some writers are able to perfectly capture the voices of the characters that they are portraying. I am not one of them. However, here I've made a conscious effort to choose lines that I could hear in their voices, but I don't know if I've come anywhere close to success. So, yeah. There was an attempt.
> 
> Please comment. Any input is amazing input.


End file.
